I am absolutely appalled. I am even more appalled that some of my friends in dc support this!

President Bush said yesterday that he will review a bill to give District residents full voting rights in the House, marking the first time he has spoken about a measure that local lawmakers are trying to win approval for over the next few weeks.

The bill, introduced six months ago, also would add a congressional seat for Utah. Proponents of D.C. voting rights have waged a major push to get the bill passed this year.

A lesbian couple with twins moved out of Virginia, after HB 751 passed in 04, and with the threat of the amendment from hell passing this year. These were longtime friends of mine, and while I disagreed with their action, given the nature of their relationship  -having kids they need to protect should anything happen to one of them, I understand why they left.

There have been articles in the Blade (and elsewhere) about gay couples leaving VA in droves, saying that they cannot stand the idea of living here under conservative rule and anti-gay amendments any longer.

I will not  be one of those.

With the dems in power in both houses, will there be republican defections to the dem party??

In 1994, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Dick Shelby, Jimmy Hayes, Greg Laughlin, Billy Tauzin, and Nathan Deal all switched when the repubs had their little "Revolution." They loved power over principle, and intended to retain seats and chairmanships and control. Very sad. But an effective ploy by the repubs to build a longer-lasting base in the house

So will that happen in 2006/7?

My friend Wes has a great blog, read minimally out there in world. Mostly he uses it to vent his rage against the insanity of the Bush presidency.

Of late, in some posts, he has been having very interesting discussions in the comments. I guess some folks out there are attempting to engage him and prove to him that he is wrong. Being Wes, he just reads and tries to respond rationally. Wes is never convinced that his is the only point of view, and is open to consider things and sift through for the truth.

But I have decided to step in and defend Wes.

Inspired by this diary on DailyKos.

Beautiful!

Dean yesterday donned a white Hazmat suit and brown and yellow work gloves to help gut a storm-ravaged home in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward so that it can eventually be restored.

This is leadership. The dems all need to be doing this - showing that they put their money where their mouths are. Demonstrating what good government does. Gore was there helping to clean up the region. Bush was partying while the region was destroyed.

CEO pay appalls me.

When you see when the top execs get in packages, bonuses, retirements, and stock options, it makes your head spin.

This morning on CNN (while on the stairmaster, as usual), there was a discussion of CEOs getting 4 million per year pension plans while employee pension plans get slashed, (they were talking specifically about IBM, and being an IBM brat, I grew up believing in corporate benevolence and the notion of a safe, lifelong, company-funded retirement). This should leave us aghast. What kind of world is it where the leader of the organization gets all this extra bonus while the rest of us throw our money into the stock market lottery 401k mutual fund wishing well, hoping that things turn out great, and if they don't, then we may end up with social security and eat cat food in our 70s

This morning on the stairmaster I saw that the Dubya Family made $600000 last year and paid almost $190k in taxes. That seems fair, basically.

However, I was appalled that the Cheney Criminals earned $8.8 million in 2005, and were taxed $2.5 million on it. The appalling part is that they will get a refund of $1.94 million!

Now I will grant that the Cheney Criminals donated almost $6.8 million to charity, (or so the article says). If that is true, then I can live with them paying about 500k in taxes on what was not donated.

Alas, Tim Kaine continues to fail me.

He never replied to my letter to him months ago, and he now has failed me deeply. He could veto the bills and force the Legislature to override him, taking a meaningful stand that will put him on the right side of history. Alas, he is swayed by his future political ambitions... he intends to be Senator at some point, or maybe governor again after this term.